The Best Things to Do in Phoenix This Weekend

No plans for the weekend? No problem. This weekend you can join the Cult Film in Review podcast looking into the 1999 cult documentary American Movie, relive your high school years at Adult Prom, or watch the Arizona Theatre Company bring The Diary of Anne Frank to life. For more things to do, visit Phoenix New Times' calendar.

Capture!PhotoCon 2018 Thanks to Instagram, being a photographer is the new cool thing to do. So if you are new to photography and looking to learn new skills and network a little, head to Capture!PhotoCon 2018.

The three-day convention includes a keynote presentation from Joel Grimes, and over 150 classes, workshops, photowalks, and model shoots. Classes include pet photography, food photography, poolside photography, and creative compositing.

The conference runs from 3 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 18 to Sunday, May 20, at Ability 360 Conference Center, 5025 East Washington Street. Tickets to the full conference are $399. Discounts are available for returning attendees, and full-time students. For more information, visit the Capture PhotoCon website. Lindsay Roberts

From Broadway Live 1980s pop star Cyndi Lauper gave a shoutout to the #RedForEd movement during the Arizona teachers’ strike, and the Phoenix Symphony will return the acknowledgment by featuring two of the songs she wrote for the hit musical Kinky Boots during the orchestra’s From Broadway Live performances, Friday, May 18, through Sunday, May 20. Lauper’s “The Soul of a Man” and “History of Wrong Guys” are both on the set list, as is a selection from Hamilton, and plenty of Andrew Lloyd Webber classics, just in case you are the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen “Memory” performed on stage.

Well-traveled Stuart Chavetz is the guest conductor, and soloist Crystal Kellogg will hit the high notes. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 18 and Saturday, May 19, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 20 at Phoenix Symphony Hall, 75 North Second Street. Tickets start at $43 at the Phoenix Symphony website. Stuart Warner

Union32 Plays Sticky Fingers The show Union32 Plays Sticky Fingers at The Nash will demonstrate that there is more to the landmark Rolling Stones album than the provocative Andy Warhol cover art, which featured a real metal zipper on a picture of a tight pair of jeans hugging a man’s genitalia. The quintet, led by Dr. Brett Reed, will explore the jazz arrangements and deeper musical meaning hidden in the 1971 record, known for its hazy song lyrics depicting dirty basements and allusions to drug use. Beyond the killer riffs of “Brown Sugar” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” are the country blues of “Wild Horses” and “Dead Flowers,” and the tenderness of “Moonlight Mile.”

Let the wild horses drag you away at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 18, at 110 East Roosevelt Street. Tickets are $20 or $10 for students with ID. For more information, visit the Nash website. Jason Keil

Filmmakers escape from Milwaukee.

Sony Picture Classics

Cult Film In Review Two decades ago, no film critic could predict that Milwaukee would become part of cinema’s future, but the Wisconsin metropolis is the setting of the 1999 cult documentary American Movie. Director Chris Smith, who would go on to direct the Netflix film Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond, follows local filmmaker Mark Borchardt and his friend Mike Schank as they struggle (often humorously) to make Coven, a short horror movie project he abandoned years before but resurrects as his way to escape a life filled with failure. The podcast Cult Film In Review will host a live show discussing the movie afterwards.

The screening begins at 10 p.m. on Friday, May 18, at FilmBar, 815 North Second Street. Admission is $9.95. For more information, visit the Film Bar website. Jason Keil

Come create something beautiful at Even Stevens with Paint Nite Phoenix! Whether you are a bona fide artist or nothing more than a finger painter, head to 21 West Van Buren Street on Saturday, May 19, to try your hand at painting called Bonsai Cliffs.

Soil & Seed Garden Market With summer right around the corner, it’s your last chance to pick up all your produce needs this season from the Soil & Seed Garden Market.

You can purchase herbs, eggs, and flowers each weekend at The Shed next to the garden from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Head to 6106 South 32nd Street on Saturday, May 19, and get shopping.

Check out thefarmatsouthmountain.com/soil-seed-garden/ to see what’s growing. Admission to the market is free. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Lindsay Roberts

Play Date: Adult Prom Did you ever wish you could do high school over again? If you do not happen to own a time-traveling DeLorean, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix is offering an opportunity to relive the greatest night of your teenage life with Play Date: Adult Prom. Make your own corsage to pin on your date as you sip on cocktails and craft beer (because you’re of legal drinking age now) and perform karaoke. If you want another crack at being prom king or queen, nominate yourself (or a friend) for the royalty contest.

Hit the dance floor from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 19, at 215 North Seventh Street. Tickets are $15-$50. For more information, visit the Children's Museum website. Jason Keil

Carmela y Mas How about a little salsa with your gyros? Local Latina legend Carmela Ramirez and her eight-piece salsa band, Carmela y Mas, will perform at the Opa Life Greek Café, 227 East Baseline Road in Tempe, on Saturday, May 19. Ramirez, a fixture on the local arts scene since the 1970s, was featured in the 2010 Latina Trailblazers series at Phoenix College for her work as a producer, actor, vocalist, and arts advocate.

The show begins at 7 p.m. Admission and salsa dance lessons are free but the ouzo and the souvlaki are not. Visit the Music Scene AZ website. Stuart Warner

Artwork you'll spot along Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe.

Lynn Trimble

Self-Guided Tour Leave your band at home, and head down to Mill Avenue in Tempe for a lazy Sunday on May 20. It’s a great place to take a free, self-guided tour of Tempe Public Art. You’ll find works by local artists in post office window displays, utility boxes painted with diverse styles, and sculptures that include a group of towering rabbits tucked a bit off the beaten path.

Start at Mill Avenue and University Drive if you want to see the giant sneaker artist Clyde painted for a Phoenix Suns project. Then walk towards Tempe Town Lake, watching for newsstands along the way. More than a dozen feature art depicting women, created by female artists for a Downtown Tempe Authority project called She Tempe.

While you’re in Tempe, stop by Daley Park to see Jake Early’s new mural. Or look for more public art along the lake, and inside the arts center. Visit the city of Tempe website. Lynn Trimble

Anna Lentz and Gus Cuddy in The Diary of Anne Frank.

Tim Fuller

The Diary of Anne Frank Anne Frank’s diary, written while the Jewish teen hid with seven others inside a small Amsterdam attic, continues to illuminate the dark history of the Holocaust. It’s inspired some compelling performance art, which helps people remember the perils of complacency.

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Arizona Theatre Company is performing The Diary of Anne Frank at 1 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, at Herberger Theater Center, 222 East Monroe Street. It’s a Wendy Kesselman adaptation of the 1955 script by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. And it’s being co-produced with New York’s Geva Theatre Center.

Tickets start at $41, and there’s a free post-show discussion with cast members after Sunday’s matinee. Best of all, it’s being directed by David Ira Goldstein, former artistic director for the company. Visit the Arizona Theatre website. Lynn Trimble

Fahrenheit 451 Artist Valeska Soares, whose exhibition “Any Moment Now” is currently showing at the Phoenix Art Museum, uses parts of books to create her minimalist art. This might be one reason she selected the 1966 science-fiction film Fahrenheit 451, based on the Ray Bradbury novel, as one of the movies that influenced her work. In the future, firemen no longer put out fires — they torch books. Guy Montag, played by Oskar Werner, lights a creative flame within himself when he begins reading what he should be burning.

Turn the page at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, at 1625 North Central Avenue. Admission is included with the purchase of a general admission ticket. For more information, visit the Phoenix Art Museum website. Jason Keil

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